It is known in the construction of electrical connectors for use in circuits carrying high frequency signals to provide, as an integral part of the connector, an electrical filter network for filtering electromagnetic interference which may exist. Such filter networks may include one or more filter elements comprising either sintered or fused slabs or tubes of a ceramic dielectric material, typically barium titanate. The resulting ceramics are rigid, costly, extremely fragile, and highly susceptible to damage during fabrication of the connector. In addition, repair of a faulty connector involving replacement of a defective part is generally impractical, since disassembly of the connector is usually impossible without extensive damage to the fragile filter components. Accordingly, defective filter connectors are often discarded rather than repaired, even though the individual parts are expensive. Further, connectors manufactured with filter capacitors constructed in accordance with the invention will have much increased immunity to breakage during normal shock and vibration encountered during use.
A filter connector using rigid cylindrically shaped dielectrics is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 3,579,155 issued Mar. 18, 1971 to Jeff Tuchto and assigned to the Bunker-Ramo Corporation. While a "pi" type filter having ferrite inductance elements is shown, the capacitive dielectric is a ceramic cylinder with metallized surfaces forming the capacitor plates which is typical of the prior art. As indicated in the patent text, these ceramic elements are very fragile.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,144,059 issued Mar. 13, 1979 to Kamal Boutros and assigned to Bunker Ramo Corporation depicts a typical configuration in which the filter element or dielectric is in planar form with through holes for passage of the live electrodes, often referred to as pin and/or socket contacts. In this patent the conductive elements of the capacitor consist of metallized areas on the dielectric surface. Here again the sintered dielectric is quite fragile and if any individual capacitor element becomes defective the entire assembly may have to be discarded.